The decision yesterday by the government of Romano Prodi, the Italian prime minister, to sack his country's head of military intelligence and two other spy chiefs is yet another reminder of how leading European countries have colluded in the shameful and destructive practice of "rendition" - a programme run by the US Central Intelligence Agency to kidnap and transport beyond the reach of the law suspects in the "war on terror".

Prosecutors suspect Nicolò Pollari, head of Italy's Sismi agency, of involvement in the CIA's abduction in Milan of Osama Hassan Mustafa Nasr in February 2003. The radical Egyptian cleric was then flown to Cairo where he claims - credibly, given Egypt's human rights record - to have been tortured.